9 Tornados Hit Bay Area Last Thursday

I thought there was only 1 tornado that hit Tampa Bay when I watched the news last thursday. But there were actually 9 Tornados. The damage around the area was so severe after the storm, a lot of places were flooded and a lot of areas were left without power. Here's more from the  News Link.

Rainy Days

I woke up today with the sound of rain and thunderstorms. It's been raining here since monday. It's gloomy and nasty outside. And tomorrow it's expected to be raining still but the weekend forecast says it will be dry and pleasant. Hopefully so, I miss the sunshine!

Update: We are on tornado warning until 1 pm. The rain is just pouring, other counties are almost pitch black. It is indeed a little scary to be in the middle of this and it's not even tornado season yet for Florida.

The severe storm finally stopped in the middle afternoon in our area. But  the strong winds and rain had caused damaged all around with several single engined planes turned-over, big oak trees uprooted, roofs  and windows torn and blown away, cars overturned, flooding and no power in some areas. The weather just turned around from warm and sunny to wet and rainy. Spring rain definitely didn't come gently.

First Week of Spring

The first day of spring started March 20, 2011 for this year. It's a beautiful day to be out, the weather's just right specially in the morning and late afternoon, middle afternoon still gets quite hot though. The days are long. It's my first time to experience daylight savings time. It's kind of surreal at first when you look at the clock and see it's already 7:30 pm but it's still light outside. It gets dark at around 8 pm here at this time. But i'm not complaining, it's springtime, there's so many things one can do outside. I took a photo of these pretty blue violet and white wildflowers that grew in our yard.  I can't identify the names but they do look pretty. The yellow flowers at the bottom were taken at one of the beaches here in our area.

Florida Weather

Finally I know now when they said Florida sun is hot. I thought coming from a tropical country, it would be something I wouldn't worry about. But the sun here is blazing, biting hot. I guess part of it is the humidity since we live near the ocean and its location which is close to the equator. The weather here now is in the 80's so it's good, we're happy about that. The only problem is, my husband said this isn't IT yet. So what does he mean by this isn't the one yet? He meant it will become hotter when summer time comes, you see it's spring time now so the weather is nice. But summer will be a different story. Now I can't even imagine that but I guess I will just have to practice dressing the Florida way. As what my husband said, I should start learning to dress the way most people dress here, wear light clothing, shorts and t-shirts. Every time we go out to get something like in the store, I put on some jeans and t-shirt and even bring a light coat. I'm still a little worried it will get cool in the late afternoon. I still remember quite well, the freezing temperature when I arrived here a few months ago but now it's starting to get really warm. 

Florida is flat, you will not see a mountain at all. It's quite different from where I come from, where you can see mountains in almost all directions. Here wherever we go, I see water everywhere and the breeze from the ocean can be warm, a little different from the cool mountain air.

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge

We went over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge when we went to Anna Maria Island last January 30, 2011. The bridge looked awesome from a distance and even more so when going over it. The bridge has a length of  29,040 ft. or 8.9 kilometers and connects St. Petersburg and Bradenton in Florida. It was completed in April 20, 1987 after the first bridge went down. Travel Channel rated the bridge as #3 in its list of the "Top 10 Bridges in the World". 

Anna Maria Island

We went to Anna Maria Island last January 30, 2011. We got there just in time for the beautiful sunset. The sand at Anna Maria Island was white, soft and powdery. We stayed only to see the sunset and then we started back home again. Another thing we did on the trip was go over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Going over the bridge in the morning and night was an awesome experience for me. Below are some photos of Anna Maria Island.

Closed for Restoration!

Our trip to Fort De  Soto Park was a bummer  cos the Fort and historic museum was closed and undergoing restoration. Still we went around it and took a few photos. The park is big and has a nice beach. Fort De Soto Park is located just outside St. Petersburg in Florida.